13 Jun 2000

Linux, the DVD, and the Law

As I wrote in the last column, the central importance of free
software—from my perspective both as an academic observer and as a
lawyer involved in the free software movement’s legal strategy—is
its effect in changing who controls the switches, or information
distribution devices, that comprise the network of networks we call
“the Internet.” Because free software is distributed under terms
that guarantee that each user has access to source code, and can
freely modify and redistribute that code however she or he likes,
programs can be always be altered so that the information flow to and
from individual users is under their own control.